In at least two of the classes this semester, I think I’m finally going to have to tackle my demon of “Close Reading”. Since middle school, I’ve complained that I “don’t know how to take notes” and have noticed that “reading/listening comprehension” was an area that I consistently scored poorly on in standardized tests, but because I did well in other areas (I suspect), no remedial help came for me and I never thought to ask, beyond grumbling about “not knowing how to take notes”.
I’m reading/watching _this guy_ who calls it “purposeful annotating”, which INSTANTLY clears up a lot of it. He says that the phrase “Close Reading” means too many things now, which is why it’s confusing. He wrote this blog post I’m reading now.
https://davestuartjr.com/purposeful-annotation-close-reading/